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A walk in Ynysybwl

Yesterday, Karen, David and I visited Ynysybwl just off the Taf Valley, North West of Cardiff. We received a very warm welcome from Barbara (Ynysybwl Regeneration Partnership), Rebecca (Glyncoch Community Regeneration), Jill (Daerwynno Outdoor Centre) and Tony (Community Council). They took some time out of their day to take us on a short walk around the site of the Lady Windsor Colliery and tell us a little bit about the history of coal mining in the village.The pit closed in 1988 and I’m not sure when it was taken down, but with the spoil tip covered in vegetation and a now well-used cycle and footpath along the site, it’s hard to image what it looked like to the untrained eye like mine. So I did a bit of searching on google to get a better idea and found these…

It was great to hear more about the village and to find out about its rich history, especially in terms of energy. I was really interested to learn that if one side of the valley was dedicated to coal mining, the other side beyond the village was agricultural. I believe forestry was also developed in the area by the Forestry Commission Wales after the Second World War and is still going strong today. So plenty of (hi)stories to uncover, which is really exciting as we’re hoping to set up an intergenerational oral history project in the village.